Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan

Key points

The EESC:

• believes that society should not look upon entrepreneurship as a cure-all, but rather as an aid to achieving a return to growth;
• is concerned however that the Multiannual Financial Framework approved by the European Council will undermine the implementation of the action plan, which will end up as little more than a financially unsustainable set of good intentions;
• reiterates the need to give the various stakeholders on the ground the means to disseminate and promote best practices in entrepreneurship, irrespective of their origin (public or private) or area of activity;
• calls for the Commission and Member States to implement the action plan in close cooperation with the various SME representative organisations;
• agrees that policies promoting entrepreneurship have to be coordinated with education policies, at both national and European levels;
• believes that the Commission should declare one of the two coming years to be the "European Year of Entrepreneurship", along the lines of other similar campaigns;
• calls on the Commission to establish a fourth area for intervention to strengthen the mentoring, coaching and support activities provided for enterprises, especially the smallest businesses, through intermediary organisations;
• lastly, calls on the European institutions to establish support systems for people who want to begin self-employed work during their retirement.

Other relevant EESC opinions:

• Creativity and entrepreneurship: mechanisms for climbing out of the crisis (CESE 1165/2010, INT/519)
• Review of the "Small Business Act" (CESE 1375/2011, INT/573)
• Social entrepreneurship and social enterprise (CESE 1584/2011, INT/589)
• Social Business Initiative (CESE 1292/2012, INT/606)
• Competitiveness Programme (CESE 808/2012, INT/619)
• An action plan to improve access to finance for SMEs (CESE 1411/2012, INT/632)

For more information please contact the INT Section Secretariat